The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-11
BRIGHT LIGHTS OF FINANCE.
One of the Prominent Men in the Balti-
more and Ohio Deal.


NEW YORK, Sept. 10.-What galaxy
of financial talent has suddenly shone out
on the now famous Baltimore and Ohio deal
One of the principal figures is Junius S.
Morgan, of the London banking house of j.
S. Morgan & Co. He is man now well along
in life, being in fact nearly 20 years of age
He comes of an old Massachusetts family,
though it is curious to recall the fact that
the name Morgan is one of the earliest
known to Anglo-Saxon civilization
As a boy, J. S. Morgan entered
the dry goods house of James III. Beebe
q Co. Of Boston. AS years went on
he rose higher and higher and finally
became one of its chief managers. About
this time the famous George Peabody, the
banker and philanthropist, visited Boston
and made itgenerally known that he wanted
partner in his London house. His atten-
ton was called to young Morgan. He sent
for him, and in few minutes an arrange
ment was made, and the young man took
the next steamer for Europe. Ii was ban
ishment from his native land but gold as
suaged any pain this might naturally nave
caused, and J. S. Morgan is probably well
Anglicised by this time. The death Of
George Peabody years ago placed him at the
head of tie great banking house founded by
that financial genius
Here in New York the real head of the
fl m Drexel, Morgan q Co is j. Pierpont
MOI gan. the son OF Junius 5. Morgan. Pier
pont Morgan would hardly be taken for the
head of a great banking house as he sits in
his private office. He wears a derby hat
which he does not remove even in his office;
as he rapidly writes at his plain desk he
puffs vigorously at his cigar. He looks like
some visitor who has had the assurance to
occupy tie desk for a little hasty scribbling
lt1V.ir fstyi-
of possibly As and has made himself unpop-
popular by certain bruSqueneSS of manner
which is a fault of too many business men.
His temperament, | should say, however, is
kindly at the bottom. In appearance he Is
somewhat suggestive of Bardoph; the large
nose is dubious with some malignant erup-
ton, due. as his enemies think to the pleas
ures of the table, and as his friends say to
erysipelas, and this is far more probable
explanatio ion. He has expended, | am told,
large amounts in charity, and his wife is
identified with numerous philanthropy cal
movements.
The Drexels are Pennsylvania Dutchmen,
who began as money changers and have
worked their way to prominence as bank
ers. They have never been accused of any
great business talent. The founder of the
fortunes of the family delved and saved
practiSed the most rigid economy and &C
quired an enormous fortune
Other firms identified with the Baltimore
and Ohio deal on this side are Brown Broth
ers and Kidder, Peabody q Co. 1t is curl
Gus to notice how closely theHry goods trade
is connected with the history of great finan-
cial houses. The house of Brown Brothers
was founded in Baltimore early in the pres
ent century, not as bankers, but as commits
sion merchants in dry goods, largely in lin
ems imported from Belfast, the original
members of the house being Irishmen. After
some years a branch house was established
in New York and at first only a dry goods
business was done, but later on the firm be-
gan to advance money on cotton, and as
time went on similar aid was given to the
cotton trades and other branches of bust
ness As the banking business of the house
increased the dry goods trade was gradual
ly dropped until the firm finally became
prominent as full-felged bankers. One of
the oldest members of the firm, as it is now
constituted, is James M. Brown, who is
about Is years of age, but walks miles
every day for the sake of the exercise and
the physical benefit experienced. He lives
on Fifth avenue, hut sometimes walks clear
down to Wall street. He is President of
the Chamber of Commerce and a member
of the Union League.
Kidder, Peabody q Co. are identified with
the deal, but there is nothing noteworthy
concerning the personnel of the house, ex-
cept that Oliver Peabody, one of the firm,
is relative of the famous George Peabody.
As TO the deal itself, it looks as though
Alfred Sully would gain his point and make
the Richmond terminal a great through
route to the South. Mr.. Sully is one of the
pleasantest men in Wall street; there is a
shrewd look in the eyes that peer pleasantly
but keenly INTO the face of an interlocutor
and jolly Lad h on occasion. He is a man
of decided ability and varied attachments.
He is not merely man of deals" and
figures; he has scholarly tastes. and owns q
very fine library. No one could be more
unpretentious than this man trained as a
lawyer, of Canadian birth, but thorough
American in feeling, and who. after win
ming success in his profession, wins still
greater success in the domain of finance,
that battlefield of keen wits, with millions
for the prize
What sharp rivalry What bitter jeal-
ousy, what Slyness and deceit one often sees
in these financial battles. Mr. Sully, how
ever has pushed his way to success by no
underhand tricks, though diplomacy, of
which Talleyrand might have been proud,
has often contributed TO the consummation
of his projects. Newspaper men like him
because he either tells the truth or remains
silent.
Then there is Calvin s. Brice, the Baron
Munchausen of New York finance. He sits
at his desk in the Aston Building on Wall
street, short man of wiry build and with
broad shoulders, perpetually smoking or
chewing cigar, nervous in manner, bluff
and Off-hand ready enough to talk and lib
eral in contributions of fictions to the news
columns of the press, though there is ira
dition that he once, possibly in a moment of
mental alteration, told reporter the truth
He is an Ohio lawyer, rich, about 45
years of age, pushing, not without
ability and seems to be feeling
his way to a bold attempt to secure a
mortgage CD the planet. Just now he has
his keen gray eyes on a place in the new
Baltimore and Ohio directory. He is Vice
President of the East Tennessee, Virginia
and Georgia road, and is also identified with
that now grant OF the railroad world the
Richmond and West Point Terminal. His
success in New York illustrates the power
of audacity and ability in the financial
world. He came here with little, but now
he is worth a million or more, lives in fine
style here or at Newport, and is pushing his
way VITA something like a swagger toward
social as well as financial prominence.
Meanwhile thore Is good deal of sense